Find three types of language games for students of English as a Second Language, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Spanish. Activities include Hangman, Crosswords, and Wordsearch. The site also includes links to information about the educational effects of playing games while learning Spanish (since the site producer is a Spanish language school). All the activities are preset, that is, this is not a site where you can make their own puzzles.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Provide a link to this on classroom computers for language and vocabulary review time for any language learning class. Challenge students to create a word cloud of terms learned on this site using a tool such as Wordle reviewed here.

Looking for resources to use on your interactive whiteboard? If so, this site is a tremendous resource for all whiteboard users, not just those with a Promethean Board. View, search, and download from over 60,000 resources in all subject areas and grade levels. Use the Resources tab to search by state standard, content, grade level, or resource type. Register on the site to enable download ability as well as many other features such as saving favorites, reviewing resources, asking questions on the technical forum, following specific users, and uploading your own resources. Each resource includes a short description, grade level recommendation, file format, and size. Another great feature is the slide show included with each download for previewing different pages used on each chart.

In the Classroom

Before you try any of these activities, think about how you can make the lesson more student-centered. Find ideas in TeachersFirst's Hands off, Vanna! Giving Students Control of Interactive Whiteboard Learning . Browse the site for interactive whiteboard resources to download for classroom use. Bookmark and save favorites for later use. Download any resource, then tweak it to your individual needs. Have questions about creating Promethean Flipcharts? Post your question on the technical board to receive helpful replies. If you have a SmartBoard, be sure to check out the SmartBoard lessons and resources page located here. You will need to download the ActivInspire software (free).

Comments

This is the go-to site for Promethean flipchart downloads. Most files were created by teachers. The only downside is that the files are hit-or-miss. There are many gems, but you might have to browse some not-so-great files to find them.Tim, , Grades: 0 - 6

Find out how to say a word or phrase in another language: German, French, Portugese, or Spanish. You can also work from these languages to English. This tool translates one or two words but is not a translator of larger passages as Google Translate or Babblefish are. Linguee displays two results. On the left, see example sentences from many sources using your search expression in context; on the right, see results from Linguee's editorial dictionary translating the expression in context. This is a submersion-like experience because it looks at a small amount of text in context in the target language instead of a one-to-one, back-and-forth translation. The tool orks wuite well with short, idiomatic phrases such as "ahead of the game." You can vote thumbs up or down for the various in-context translations offered. The reverse process is also available, translating from any of the European languages into English. Some of the words/phrases provide audio. Plans are to expand the offerings to other languages. The home page is also available in Spanish. You can contribute new meanings to existing entries, similar to a Wiki.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this in world language classes to show how key words and phrases appear in the target language. This is a useful tool, as well, to check for plagiarism of papers written in German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. ESL/ELL students can benefit from backing away from their reliance on translation by seeing new words or short phrases in context.

Lingt was developed for world language learners and teachers. You can set up listening and speaking assignments using your voice recordings, MP3 recordings, images, videos, and text. With a free registration, you receive a class URL where your class can record their reactions and/or oral answers to recordings and assignments. You can also save the material you have already made for use later. The free registration allows you to save at least 6 assignments for the class you create. An upgrade does have a cost, but there is plenty of potential here for valuable, free usage. Once you have signed up, you can watch their very informative intro video. This video shows you exactly how to set up your assignments and what your choices are. The Lingt Community allows you to share your assignments and see what others have saved and used there. Students of world languages will be able to hear the real sound of a native speaker. Be sure to check out the "Product" tab to get lots of ideas for using Lingt.

In the Classroom

No matter whether you are a world language teacher, an ESL/ELL teacher, or a language arts teacher who has ESL/ELL students in your class, you will love using this program. Use Lingt for reading practice, commenting on or interpreting an image or video, dictation, and anything else your students need. Students do not have to register. Give them the URL for the class; they complete the assignment and submit. They will then be asked for their name and email. For younger students, have them use an acronym, such as the first two letters of their last name and the first three letters of their first name, and a gmail account you have set up for them. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students. This link about email registration, here, explains how to do this. You can see which students have completed the assignments and view them from your home page. You can leave text or voice feedback on the assignment.

Rhymes.net is a simple site that offers words that rhyme with whatever you enter in the search field. Indicated in the rhyming word are syllables for ease of use, and there is a set of photos for words searched. Choose from the dropdown box to translate the word into several languages from Arab through Turkish. Listen to the word by clicking on the speaker icon next to your word. The right sidebar lists popular nursery rhymes. Click to show the text of the rhyme.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This would be a great site to share during your poetry unit as a resource for rhyming words. Create a list of student-generated rhyming words before using this site to discover words missed. Challenge students to use lesser-known words found through the site. Share with your school's music teacher to use when writing songs with students. Have students create rhyming word clouds using a tool such as Wordle (reviewed here), Tagxedo (reviewed here), or WordItOut (reviewed here). Hang printed word clouds on the classroom walls during poetry units so students see many choices or share them on a class wiki.

Use the text of nursery rhymes to create class interactive books using Bookemon reviewed here, or make student-illustrated "big books" using PowerPoint to create and print. (Copyright is NOT an issue for this public domain text.)

In world language classes, share a translated nursery rhyme each day as a challenge for students to decipher and guess the "real" nursery classic

Create a live Internet radio show -- free -- with Spreaker! This super easy online tool creates podcasts instantly for you to share with your own URL, on Facebook, Google +, Soundcloud, Twitter, or add to the Spreaker website. Follow others, or invite others to follow your podcasts. With a click of a button you are creating a live podcast. To create a podcast you do not need Flash. However, there are several tutorials, and these tutorials require flash. There is a free version and a more deluxe premium version. This review is for the free version.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Enjoy a live radio show from your classroom! Publish written pieces of writing, science reports, social studies reports, and any other reports you would like to share. Create a New Book or Book Review podcast for the media center. Link to your podcast URL on your class website. Publish directions to projects, explanations for difficult concepts, or even a radio show of you reading your favorite books for your students. Have upper elementary students take turns reading aloud for a podcast aimed at little reading buddies in kindergarten. Allow students to podcast to "pen pals" in faraway places. Record your school choir, orchestra group, poetry club, or drama club doing their best work or dramatic readings of Shakespeare soliloquies. Take your school newspaper to a new level with recorded radio articles. Be sure to include interviews with students, teachers, principals, parents, authors, artists, and almost anyone. In younger grades, use to save an audio portfolio of reading fluency, expression, or to aid with running records or even include writing. Be sure do this regularly throughout the year to analyze growth. Have fun at Halloween with your Halloween station filled with favorite spooky stories! Welcome your students to a new school year by sending them your message. Create messages for classmates who move away. Bring your foreign language classes an extra resource of your pronunciations whenever they need more practice. ESL/ELL, special education classes can often benefit from the extra explanations, practice, and elaborated instructions given at their own pace. The possibilities are endless! The site itself is a "web 2.0," social networking style site, so some schools may have it blocked. Ask about unblocking just YOUR teacher account so you can have students access it while at school and under your supervision.

Use innovative new techniques to teach languages as well as other useful topics: Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, French, Hebrew, Scots, and more. Learning is based on the use of three ingredients - science, fun, and community. One interesting "language" included is SAT vocabulary! "Mems" are used to help form vivid memories while including simple quizzes along the way to test knowledge. Grow gardens of knowledge along the way. Water your garden occasionally through review of previous topics. Find all topics on the site by choosing the topics link located at the top, right-hand side of the home page to find included activities such as famous people, animals, and world geography. Registration isn't required to use resources on the site; however, activities can be saved and reentered by creating a free account with a Facebook login or email information. This site is in Beta at the time of this review.

In the Classroom

World language teachers can use this site as a center or homework activity for increasing vocabulary skills. Share with students to use for SAT prep. Use the site to help students learn and understand languages used by classmates. If you teach a unit on study skills or work with learning support students, use the mnemonics on this site as examples to help students generate their own "memory jogging" tricks to use when studying for tests. Stop to analyze together how these activities reinforce new memorization. Get your students thinking about thinking! After learning some basic language skills, have students create a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can be used to demonstrate new language skills learned. Use a site such as Blabberize (reviewed here).

Comments

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Surface Languages is free site to learn basic survival words and phrases on a variety of topics in 37 different languages. Learn phrases in Afrikaans, Slovak, Arabic, Spanish, Bosnian, Swahili, Bulgarian, Swedish, Catalan, Turkish, Chinese, Ukrainian, Croatian, Urdu, Czech, Welsh, Danish, Yiddish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Russian. Phrases are organized into topics so use is simple. In addition to reading and hearing the words and phrases pronounced, the site has the capability of creating flash cards for each lesson. You choose yes or no to indicate if the card has the correct meaning. It also offers multiple choice items to test listening skills for the language and translating from English to the target language.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This site would be very handy in introduction (and level 1) world language classes. Use this site as a learning station or center. Use this site as a reference for checking meanings of foreign words and phrases. Use this site when students are preparing a project about another culture. If you have students in world language, world culture, or even language arts classes who need enrichment - send them to this site to learn the basics of a new language or look for roots that show in English. self-motivated gifted students or those planning a semester abroad can learn language basics on their own here. Be sure to include this site during "Children of the World Day" or family heritage day activities.

This amazing site contains thousands of lesson plans and activities for students of all ages (ages 3-16+). Simple registration is required with an email address and password. Choose a grade range to search for activities. Note that terminology for lessons is from the UK, so you may need to "translate" for U.S. curriculum topics and spelling. Choose subjects then further categorized into topics. Many links include complete lessons plans with items such as PowerPoint lessons, videos, quizzes, worksheets, and much more. Other options on the site allows you to save items as favorites, follow other users, save searches, and upload materials. Another offering is the "Whole School" category that includes resources for school needs such as behavior and assemblies.

Word Hippo is a word study tool for synonyms, antonyms, and more. Look for rhyming words, opposites, translations to a variety of languages, plurals, definitions and uses for the word, etc. The site also makes suggestions for other words in case you might have made a typo or do not know the spelling. As with any other reference, students should be cautioned to be sure these are accurate definitions needed for the context in which they are studying the words. You will want to spell out consequences and/or supervise to be sure students are not searching for inappropriate words, but the most egregious words of bad taste do not appear to be available for search at this site.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site for vocabulary development and word study assignments, such as writing sentences, paragraphs, or essays using new words. Since the site permits translation, this would be a valuable tool in world language classes, ESL/ELL classes, and more. Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard and elicit examples to show the class how quickly it works. Have students create their own word walls with synonyms, antonyms, sentences, and more for their latest vocabulary words. Try a tool such as Padlet, reviewed here, for each student to create an online "wall" with words aligned to color coded stickies for synonyms. antonyms, etc. Alternatively, have students create class challenges for their peers with color coded matching activities for the interactive whiteboard matching words to synonyms, antonyms, and an appropriate fill in the blank sentence. Share this as a favorite on your teacher public page for handy reference any time students encounter an unknown word. Even subject area teachers such as science and social studies will find this tool handy for students with weaker vocabulary levels.

Save hundreds of dollars spicing up your curriculum with virtual field trips! This site has "field trips" to take, instructions for creating, and resources for other virtual field trip sites. Field trips for; Career, fine arts, foreign language, health and PE, language arts, math, library, media, professional development, science, social studies, and technology are given. There is a plethora of topics - perfect for research and "virtual" travel. The topics are too broad to list all of them, but some include tessellations, dinosaurs, water cycle, medieval times, Civil War, oil painting, and much more! Receive a detailed tutorial for finding instructions on asking permission for field trips, creating virtual field trips, and evaluating the experience. No bus required! At the time of this review, three of the links under "Visit Related Sites" were not working.

In the Classroom

Immerse your students into your studies with a close up in depth look through virtual field trips. Visit places where time, money, and mileage inhibit your dreams for bringing your students into wondrous worlds. Find ways to visit where your class has never gone before. Create a personalized field trip to meet your every need with the detailed tutorials given. Find ways to motivate your most reluctant learners. ESL/ELL learners will appreciate the visit. Reach all types of learners through a class visit. Use field trips as a whole class anticipatory guide, a center activity, a home connection, or even as extra credit. Challenge your gifted students to be guides to their own learning. Make your class go global!

This site offers a myriad of memory games, brain games, quizzes, and more. Train your brain to think! Interactives offered in a variety of languages include: Dragger, Counterfeit, The Game you Can't Stop, Masterpieces, Sudoko, Mastermind, Crime Scene, The Image Quiz, Anagramania, Square Words, Speed Read, and Spellice. Many other games are also included. After winning a game, you earn a ticket. The tickets let you enter the bonus room to win a surprise image.

In the Classroom

Offer exciting and fun ways to improve problem solving and creativity in A Game a Day! Challenge your students to go beyond and stretch their thinking in a variety of ways. The gaming format holds high motivation and interest with your students. Arrange contests within your class for increased achievement. Use in gifted and advanced classes. A Game a Day is a great center time activity and also can be used effectively for reward time. Use as examples for gaming formats with your computer classes. Challenge your students to create review activities for concepts and units based on the game formats presented. Preservice teachers can benefit for discovering the wave of the future: education through gaming. Use in your world language classes to increase fluency.

Curriki is a nonprofit organization that encourages collaboration of teachers and learners in a global community of 211 different countries. Find resources by grade level, subject area, or resource type (interactive, video, or podcast.) Usage type, or exercise, unit, lesson plan, or game, is another option for searching. Use the professional webinars for a better understanding of Curriki. Onsite training is another option listed. Join different groups for a more involved way to explore new areas in online learning, subject area interests, or focus questions. Be a peer reviewer offering comments or suggestions on submitted lessons, units, games, or exercises and give your input. Create collections of your resources to keep privately or share with others. Easily make lesson plans or web quests with the easy to use templates, which include graphic organizer and rubric options. Try a problem based learning unit. Join the challenge to create a video lesson for a chance at winning $5000. The focus of this site is to provide access to teachers, schools, students, or parents to many new creative ideas in a global community. Free membership includes monthly newsletters. Follow Curriki on Facebook, twitter, or blogs.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Curriki has a number of ways to benefit teachers and students. Use Curriki as a resource listed on your website for parents and students to have extra opportunities for additional practice or enrichment. Use as a way to organize your digital resources. The lesson plan and webquest templates are user friendly and promote best practices. While growing in your professional development by connecting with teachers worldwide, let your class learn with other classes worldwide. Curriki encourages you to think critically of your own lessons, but also lessons suggested.

Sqworl is a site for combining multiple links into one single link. Registration is required; however, it is very easy. You create a username and password, add your email and it is done. After registering, a personal homepage is created, this is where the magic can begin! The homepage is where groups will be created to combine url's. Then adding some groups of link begins the process of creating groups. At this point a title is given to the group being created (examples might be Math sites, American History, etc.). The final step is to add a short description. After choosing start, simply copy and paste the url you want to use and add a short description and click finish. Once a group is created, it can be shared through the url shown on the page. Sqworl also has a bookmarklet that can be added to the browser toolbar making it easier to add items to your groups without having to open the homepage. There is also a mobile app for iPhone.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

In the classroom use this site to combine url's of online class projects into one group. Create a group of resources for students or parents for different subjects and share the url through your classroom website or newsletter. Create a group with videos relating to classroom content. Create a classroom account and let students add resources they have found to groups to share with others. Show students how to follow other groups on Sqworl and share resources by creating their own groups. Share this site with others in your building or district as an easy way to save and share online resources.

ThatQuiz is an online assessment tool for teachers of all subjects and grade levels. Create an account to gain access to record keeping tools. You can make your own tests using questions within the site. Students do not need to register since additional features are only for teachers. After choosing a category, different options are available within each of the quizzes to increase difficulty and add features. Quizzes can be timed or completed at the students' own pace. There is also an option to create a url for an individual quiz that can be linked to Facebook or Twitter accounts.

In the Classroom

Assign quizzes to students to complete on classroom computers or in computer labs. Modify activities for different student levels. Create a teacher account and modify quizzes to meet your own needs. Challenge students to complete quizzes and then increase the difficulty level. Share this link on your classroom website for students to access (to practice skills) while both in and out of the classroom. Consider allowing students to create quizzes for each other using a class account during review times or in small groups. It is much more fun to "study" by creating a quiz!

This site offers several children's picture books in PDF format for easy printing and quick access in the classroom. Approximately a dozen books are available with the possibility of new titles being added at any time. Some titles are offered in French, German, Norwegian, as well as English and other languages. A few titles are geared toward character education with an emphasis on bullying and cheating.

In the Classroom

Print copies of books for students to use during silent reading time or as take-home practice books. Share books on your interactive whiteboard to read together or as a literature center. Share this site with teachers who have students fluent in languages other than English as a resource for reading material.

Teach students about foods, measurement, or nutrition, and find great recipes at Visual Recipes. View a picture of each step of the recipe as you read the directions. English language learners and new learners to foods will find this a great resource.

In the Classroom

Choose recipes to create a menu that meets all of the requirements of the new USDA "MyPlate." Analyze a typical dish to look at calories and the breakdown of the nutrients. Be a food scientist, choosing recipes that are examples of different types of solutions (homogeneous and heterogeneous) or basic chemical reactions. Encourage healthy eating, ethnic exploration through foods, and many other topics with these easy to follow pictures and directions. World language teachers will love this visual approach to foods in another culture and can ask students to "narrate" a visual recipe in the new language while presenting on interactive whiteboard or projector. Use visual recipes to teach sequencing for writing about step by step process using words like "first, then, next." Challenge cooperative learning groups to make their own slideshow/recipe for a favorite dish of their choice using a site such as 280Slides (reviewed here).

This easy to use site allows you to make interactive online quizzes or use pre-made quizzes sorted by subject. You can upload classes, assign quizzes, and receive scores (if students are registered.) Current quizzes available range from Drama to Law to Math (and all core subjects). The format allows for any topic, and the enjoyable characters help to maintain student interest. Note: This site was created in the United Kingdom and follows the curriculum of the United Kingdom. You may notice slight spelling/pronunciation differences.

In the Classroom

You can create and/or assign quizzes for any topic. You need not register students to simply assign an activity, but registration is required to keep and report scores. You simply check which countries to include to narrow activity searches, so decide whether alternate spellings might be an issue for your curriculum topic. Students can use quizzes either at home or in school. Use this site to help students review concepts and receive immediate feedback on their performance. There is a direct link in the quizzes to send a link to registered students or to share on social networking sites such as Facebook, iGoogle and Blogger. Assign small groups of students to create their own quiz for any topic you might be studying. Students can challenge their peers as a review.

This is a site specializing in family friendly interactives for kids and families. All are categorized for easier finding - categories include beginner games, brain games, holiday games, and more. At the time of this review, there were 28 pages of interactives! There are also many academic categories such as math, science, social studies, and problem solving activities. No signup or user information is required. This site does have some minor advertisements. Also this site can take some time to fully load.

In the Classroom

Choose activities from the site to be played on classroom computers or interactive whiteboards. Assign a game (such as DinoKids Math) for homework practice with math facts. Be sure to save this site in your favorites. Also, don't forget to share this link on your class website for students to access both in and out of the classroom.

Type characters and accents in any foreign language simply by clicking them on screen using TypeIt. Especially handy for those of us who do not know the keyboard shortcuts (or ASCI codes) for accents and unlauts, this handy tool lets you compose in a text box, then simply copy/paste the text into your "destination." Now you can write text to include in the many online tools reviewed by the TeachersFirst Edge and include the accurate accents and diacritical markings vitally important to language learning. Simply keep Type It open in one tab and your tool of choice open in another. Prepare the text in TypeIt and copy/paste to text boxes in any tool or even in PowerPoint, Word, or interactive whiteboard software. Type It is easier to use than "insert character" in most word processing programs, as well!

In the Classroom

Have students creating projects in your language class? Now online posters made using Sway, reviewed here, or interactive timelines created using a site such as Sutori, reviewed here, can include the markings that are part of the language. Mark this one in your favorites and make it available from your class web page for students to use it any time, in and out of class.